HAND outstretched and a concerned look on her face, Heather Nicholson strokes a donkey at an animal sanctuary in Devon.

The photograph nestles alongside other images in the family album, displaying the childless divorcee's love of all creatures great and small.

Her father, George Barwick, a retired carpenter and strict vegan, casts his eyes over the pictures.

"I'm so proud of her," he says through his greying beard.

"She has always loved animals and been committed to trying to stop cruel and the barbaric torture of them."

Earlier this month, Heather Nicholson was handed an 11-year jail sentence. She had founded campaign group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which was determined to shut down a controversial testing lab. Practices at the lab included getting rats to breath in cigarette smoke until they had convulsions.

Leaflets were handed out and protests were staged. But when they were not being taken seriously and the experiments continued, SHAC upped the ante.